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SEO refers to search engine optimization and covers all the technical and creative elements involved in improving site rankings and driving traffic to your website. This includes a lot of different things, from generating consistently great content, to the ways in which you structure your website and the links you include in it. Over the years, SEO has been evolving in more sophisticated and interesting directions, and today, the trends of voice content and voice searches are set to further change the world of SEO.

The evolution of SEO

There have been tons of changes in the world of SEO. Once, SEO was all about cramming in the correct keywords into a web page or blog. If you were an air-conditioning salesperson than you can bet the word air-conditioning would have featured roughly one thousand times in every sentence. Keywords were very much at the center of things. However, over time, search engine algorithms have become much more sophisticated and have learned to favor more natural types of speech. When Google released Hummingbird in 2013, it moved SEO towards more conversational content. In 2016, search engine algorithms have gone further, and content that is longer and more in depth tends to do better. Content with photos also consistently outperforms text-based content, and backlinks remain essential.

It is not just text and images that are rapidly changing the world of SEO. The increasing popularity of voice search means that today over 20% of mobile queries are voice searches. These kinds of searches are based on questions rather than keywords, and they are changing SEO. For one thing, content that is conversational or that answers questions (think FAQ style) are performing well. It’s also likely that instant answers will become more popular and feature as the response for a greater number of voice-based queries. However, this doesn’t mean that we should stop paying attention to typed searches. At the moment, a whopping 80% of all mobile searches are still text-based.

Voice content also changes things

Web site and blog content tend to be a mixture of text, video, and images. And while video and image content is incredibly important, and proven to help with SEO, audio-based content is the one to watch in 2016. The fact that people are using voice assistants more and more frequently suggests that the importance of voice content is also increasing. If you can’t look at your screen and can only voice search, then it’s reasonable to assume there are many times when audio content would be preferable to content that forces you to stare at your phone or laptop. And, as voice and speech analytics continues to improve it is only a matter of time before keywords and phrases in voice become an essential part of SEO.

Heyoya is a game-changing comments and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

For more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya’s Receiver plan and start earning money today, click here.

In our fast-paced world with new technologies being developed every second and whole new industries appearing out of the blue every day, it seems like everyone is always talking about innovation. But what does innovation really mean? Innovation is actually harder than you might think to define. If you start googling it you will come up with a never-ending quantity of quotes and ideas. Just take a look at a few expert opinions. At first glance, there seems to be a cacophony of thoughts and ideas. Some say “innovation is relative”, some say “it is a process that brings new ideas”, and some say “innovation is simply an idea”. And those are just a few examples; there are much more out there! So which is it? One thing that the experts seem to broadly agree on is that innovation brings something new to the table and that often this is linked to the creation of value and competitive advantage.

Innovation is not invention, or is it?

One of the areas where people seem to frequently get confused with innovation is when it comes to figuring out the difference between invention and innovation. The concept of newness is applicable to both ideas. When we think of invention, great moments of spring to mind like the creation of the wheel, the creation of telephones, the creation of computers and many more leaps of human creativity. So are these moments also innovation or innovative? And how can we define or understand the overlap between the two (assuming there is one)?

Some people argue that the easiest way to look at the two concepts is through a Venn diagram. In this model, innovation is the space where invention (newness) meets the market (utility, creating value). So it is possible to have a great invention without being innovative if you fail to create market value. But even here there are disagreements, with many people claiming that invention is the creation of something new while innovation means incrementally changing or improving something that already exists.

Source: keyword-suggestions.com

These days the terms innovation and invention are often used as if they were one and the same, and the truth is, the term innovation has become something of a trendy buzzword that is now added to pretty much every idea, start-up, marketing plan and new technology out there. If we look to the Oxford Dictionary (aka the holy grail of language) we find that both invention and innovation refer to the act of newness and creation. It’s actually hard to pull apart the difference between the creation of a new, method, idea product and something that has been invented. So perhaps the truth of the semantics is that in the modern world “invention” has evolved into “innovation”, and perhaps this is because when it comes to new creations in the modern world, the focus (now more than ever) is on creating something new that can be brought to market, and most importantly, to create something that creates value.

Heyoya is an innovative comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

If you have a fabulous website and a dedicated user base, you might be dreaming of ways to quit the day job and somehow turn your website into a viable stream of income. Or maybe you just want a bit of extra cash on the side. In both cases there are many different strategies for turning the effort invested in your website into cash; some are relatively easy to do while others take a lot more time and effort. Here are some recommended ways to start.

Sell ad space

If you haven’t started doing this already, it’s definitely something worth looking into. You can literally sell the real-estate on your website and this can be areas on the top, to the side and also underneath your text or content. In general, pricing depends on how much traffic you have on your site. If you are pulling in high numbers, that’s great because you can charge more, but if your numbers are relatively low, your prices will be too. This mode of monetization can generate anything from a few hundred to many thousand dollars per ad depending on how many users you have on your site. If you choose to do this, it’s worth advertising your real estate on advertising marketplaces like admarketplace.com.

Source: trekadvertising.com

Use an advertising widget

There are so many endless and diverse ways to advertise. Apart from selling ad space you can use pay-per-click advertising, affiliate advertising, in-text advertising and much much more. The great thing about ad widgets is that they can give you a combination of different advertising options in an easy to use and stress-free way. Before you choose what to use, take some time to research the different advertising options and figure out which is the best fit or combination of fits for you.

Try video and/or audio ads

You might have thought quite extensively about text and visual ads. Maybe you’ve already sold a few. While they can generate a good amount of revenue for your website, it might be worth exploring other mediums and trying out video or audio ads. The usual format for these is pop-up ads which your users or readers are obliged to watch or listen to. They are better at generating revenue because of this, but on the other hand, they can be very annoying. The key is to choose the type of video and audio that would actually interest your users rather than alienating them with endless intrusive pop-ups.

Focus on below-the-fold advertising

The real estate at the very very bottom of your content or text is often ignored. Maybe you’ve thought about selling the real estate here, and if you have you are probably thinking it is worth a lot less than the large banner ads users see the second they get to your site. The truth is, the below-the-fold ads can give a lot more bang for your buck since the users who take the time to pay attention to your content and get to the bottom of your web pages are those who are most engaged.

Heyoya is a unique comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

For more information about Heyoya, or to start using Heyoya’s Receiver plan and start earning money today, click here.

When it comes to growing a business, a lot of attention and focus goes on acquiring new users and increasing user engagement. The truth is, one of the key areas where you can improve ROI is your conversion rate. However many people get to your website or online store, the big question is how many perform the actions or complete the goals needed to improve your bottom line. Sometimes the conversion rate refers to the completion of a product order, but it can also be something simpler like leaving a contact number, signing up to a mailing list or downloading a widget. Whatever conversion metric is key to your success; there are some great ways to optimize your conversion rates.

Why improve conversion rates?

So you might be thinking, why bother? You have a relatively low conversion rate but you are able to attract new visitors to your website through social media, content and advertising. That’s great news, but at the end of the day, improving your conversion rate is actually a lot more cost effective than gaining new visitors. High web traffic is good but if everyone is a single page visitor and you generally have a high bounce rate, then a greater number of visitors actually does nothing for your bottom line. On the flip side, improving your conversion rate involves finding the right kind of customers and making sure more of them stick around for the crucial moment of commitment where they go from “just another visitor” to someone who has bought into your website or product.

Source: wordstream.com

Improve your landing pages

To increase how engaged users are and to get them to make the first step towards that moment of commitment that increases your conversion rate, you need to make sure the first page they reach is excellent. If your landing pages are boring or unclear people will bounce right off them. So how can you make them amazing? First of all, make sure the content here is the best you have. If you have multiple web pages and limited resources, your landing pages should be getting a hefty share of attention and resources. They should be error free with some great advertising and marketing copy. It goes without saying that the UX should be seamless. However, it’s also important to make a clear call to action so users know what to do next. If it isn’t obvious through pop-ups and links (and whatever other tools) that they need to leave their email address or progress to their shopping cart than they won’t do it and you will lose valuable website visitors.

Create more engagement

Having great copy and beautiful visuals is great, but it isn’t enough to get your users to send you their details or commit to their first purchase. One of the best ways to get your users to stick around is to give them channels to engage. If your online store is conversational and interactive rather than static, it is highly likely people will stick around for longer. Having tailor made search results is one way to make your online store more personal. But having space for user reviews, interaction and opinions is an even better way of hearing from your customers. Reviews have been proven to increase conversion rates and are an invaluable tool for any online store. To make reviews even more personal and interactive, it’s possible to use voice-based platforms rather than the standard text-based review widgets. Voice is a great way to interact with your customers, hear their opinions, and share your thoughts and special offers.

Heyoya is a unique comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

If you have a great blog and are looking for ways to gain more followers and increase your user engagement, look no further! Here are 4 helpful tools to improve the ways you promote your blog. These range from small and simple to longer and more complex, so take a look and see which ideas inspire you.

Go beyond the blog

It might sound trivial, but your blog isn’t just your blog. One of your major aims when marketing is to increase traffic to your blog and this means improving the channels outside the immediate radius of your blog and most recent posts. Social media is one of the big places to do this. Are you on Facebook? Great! Twitter? Cool. What about Snapchat? Do you have a Pinterest account? While you don’t need to go completely mad with social media you should take some time to think about the different social media channels that are out there. If you’ve been hooked exclusively on Instagram for the past year then it might be worth diversifying your social media portfolio. Just keep in mind your target audience when you do this and pick the channels that suit them best.

Harness the right resources

A blog doesn’t have to be a one-person show. To make your blog the best it can be you will likely need some help. It is important to figure out which resources can give you the biggest bang for your buck and figure out what you really need most. You might be all set for content and need a professional photographer to get the great shots to make your blog visually stunning. Or maybe you need a web designer to give the whole blog a big overhaul. It’s important to figure out your budget and your goals and to bring on board skilled people who can really help to transform what you do.

Keep track of things

When you start investing, bringing new people on board and switching up the ways that you do things, keep a close eye on the result. Figuring out the right recipe for your blog means keeping your eye on the ball. It could be that the banner ad you paid for in a popular marketplace is getting you nothing while the email retargeting campaign you sent out is reengaging readers you lost long ago. Figuring out cause and effect will let you hone in on the tools that work best for you. And don’t stress if something doesn’t work as well as you thought it would, part of the process is about experimenting and figuring out the right combination. There is no secret recipe for success.

Get interactive

Blogging about the things that make you cry, the things you really care about or the things that keep you up and night are good, but it isn’t enough. Make sure that you are bringing your readers into the conversation by allowing your blog to have an interactive aspect. This is the difference between giving a lecture when everyone shuts up and listens and having a meaningful and open discussion where everyone learns and contributes. The latter can be far more valuable so figure out the best ways to facilitate it. It might be as easy as adding survey software to your blog or simple asking your readers to message you or comment about their thoughts.

Heyoya is a unique comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

Are you a phenomenal writer? Do you have your own blog? Or web page? Or maybe you just write the best imaginable content about your products (whatever they might be). Regardless of how good your writing is, you aren’t writing in a vacuum or for yourself, so your number one key to success is understanding and really getting to know your readers.

Who are you writing for?

If you haven’t yet started your blog or web platform, then great! Now is the perfect time to do a bit of strategic thinking and market research on your target audience. Start by trying to figure out who your ideal reader is. What is it that you are writing about and who are you really writing for? What’s your ideal demographic? And if you are writing for “people like yourself” or “friends and family”, take a few minutes to brainstorm about the characteristics of this audience. Are they teens or Millenials? Do they love cats or dogs? Are they out chasing Pokemon or busy in a high-level corporate job. All of this is important.

What makes you unique?

One of the best ways to hone in on your target market and better understand your readers is to start to understand the blogging or content landscape and figure out what your unique value proposition or niche is. If there are hundreds of people blogging about the Kardashians or the next Miss Teen USA, how will you make your blog standout? How will you connect with your readers – are they your peers? Are you educating them about a lifestyle change or a new diet? All of these questions will affect your tone and content.

Still struggling? Start talking!

It may sound breathtakingly obvious, but, if you already have a readership and are struggling to understand who they are and what they want, it might be worth simply asking them! You can start with an online survey. Google Forms and SurveyMonkey both offer very simple and straightforward tools for building surveys. When you write the survey, try and keep things simple and stick to a few main questions. You don’t want to overwhelm your readers.

Give your users space to talk

A great way to better understand your users is to increase your levels of user-generated content. This can be in the form of social media posts or even just simple comments on your blog or article. Pay close attention to these user interactions; they can give you a lot of great insight about your users. Even negative comments can help you better understand readers and ultimately better market your content.

Make things fun and simple

Providing your users with ways to share content and comment and interact with what you have to say has never been simpler. Most websites and blogs have in-built or add-on comments platforms. However, shopping around for options is worthwhile, as you want to ensure that any method of communication is not just simple, but also fun. One great way to make your user experience more fun and encourage engagement is to start using a voice comments platform like Heyoya.

Heyoya is a unique comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.

The creation of digital media (which was conceptualized as early as 1950) caused a well-known and major revolution in the way we use and interact with journalism, education, publishing and many other industries. It is perhaps one of the best-known examples of disruptive innovation and completely changed the way media was viewed and consumed. However, while most people focus on the easy to distribute a digital form of online media, its low costs and a wide potential pool of readers, one of the main changes in our view of media is often overlooked. One of the major innovations that digital brought to media was to change printed articles from static expert pieces to a springboard for dialogue.

Digital media is about a decentralization of knowledge and space where readers can be active about the content they read. The days of passively reading a newspaper or magazine and then throwing it out are long gone. Today’s media is all about heated debates, reader talkbacks and strong opinions. Today, successful media is really media that gets a conversation going. In other words, the role of the reader and the understanding of readership has fundamentally morphed and changed since digital media was unleashed.

Digital readers care less than ever before about news sources and more than ever about the conversation. Now, brands have long ago cottoned on to the importance of user-generated content. The days of seeing and believing brand advertising are gone. Today’s millennials and Gen Z’s are more skeptical than ever before and would much rather read the thoughts and reviews of their peers than listen to a brand sing its own praises about products or services. The thing is, media has gone in a similar direction. And while we still need reliable news sources, their role has changed dramatically. Rather than being the be-all and end-all of news, they are now a catalyst for debate.

Great articles get shared on social media, tweeted, shouted about and even (if content publishers are very lucky) go viral. To do any of this, it is imperative that users have a space to air their opinions. It is not enough to have outstanding content. It is not enough to be unique. Great content producers must also nurture a safe environment for users to interact with news.

So how can you encourage readers to interact (because let’s face it you can’t force them). Great content is certainly the beginning. Finding the right niche for content is also incredibly important because the stories need to speak to the right people. There is no point writing an article about the Rio Olympics and only reaching a group of people who hate sport. There is no point posting about Pokemon Go if your target audience is high profile executives (although who knows, it seems like now everyone is playing).

Once you have the content and the target market sorted (and this is certainly not trivial) its time to invest in a high-quality and easy-to-use comments platform that enables users to create and share comments. People usually want to share their opinions, but they want to do it in a way that is straightforward and comfortable. And while media can easily be plastered across social media, this doesn’t necessarily give content an edge. Similarly, while every website development tool now has some sort of automatic comment section, this might not be your best bet. It is definitely worth doing some research on comment platforms and choosing something that stands out from the crowd. One great way to differentiate is to choose different types of media. While almost everyone seems to be sticking with text-based comments, there are a few pioneers trying out different things like video and voice.

Heyoya is a unique comment and reviews platform that brings voice to e-publishers and e-stores, improving sales and user engagement by allowing readers to express themselves beyond the medium of text. Heyoya’s new Receiver plan allows for quick and easy below-the-fold monetization. Heyoya is a game changer for websites and is proven to increase brand affinity and the quality of user-generated content.